Mindfulness Meditation (For Everyday Life)

are equally deserving of attention and of honoring as
you discover them.
A number of specialized meditative practices such as
loving kindness meditation are specifically oriented
toward cultivating in oneself particular feeling states
that expand and open the metaphorical heart.
Acceptance, forgiveness, loving kindness, generosity,
and trust all are strengthened by intentionally
centering and sustaining attention in the heart region,
and invoking such feelings as part of formal
meditation practice. But these feelings are also
strengthened through simply recognizing them when
they arise spontaneously in your meditation practice
and by encountering them with awareness.
Other body regions, too, have metaphorical meaning
and can be approached in meditations, lying down
and otherwise, with this kind of awareness. The solar
plexus has a sun-like, radiant quality and can help us
to contact feelings of centeredness, lying as it does at
the center of gravity of the body, and of vitality
(digestive fires). The throat vocalizes our emotions
and can be either constricted or open. Feelings can
get "stuck in the throat" sometimes, even if the heart
is open. When we develop mindfulness of the throat
region, it can put us more in touch with our speech
and its tonal qualities - such as explosiveness, speed,